Edmund Terence Gomez, a political economy lecturer at Universiti Malaya, explained that the component parties in the opposition coalition were representing different interests and demands.
And when such interests were brought to the table, he said, there were bound to be arguments and serious debates.
“Democracy is a messy thing because you have to listen to different view points and you have to learn to compromise and find common ground.
“It isn’t easy and we shouldn’t be afraid of that,” he told reporters after attending a forum titled “Can the Middle Class Save Malaysia” here last night.
Gomez urged opposition supporters to view the infighting positively, as opposed to a hegemonic single dominant party.
“They claim they are sharing power, but we know there is no dialogue. Is that what we want?”
While he did not identify the party, it is believed Gomez was alluding to Umno.
The opposition coalition had its fair share of infighting among components in the past, with a major one being the disagreement over hudud between DAP and PAS which subsequently led to the demise of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in 2015.
And while Pakatan Harapan (PH), a two-year-old opposition coalition has yet to see a major rift among its components – namely DAP, Amanah, PKR and PPBM – its chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad got involved in a minor spat with PKR after the former prime minister claimed that the coalition had a “problem” with PKR last month.
This happened after PKR’s de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said the pact should cooperate with PAS, a former ally of PKR in PR.
Mahathir’s statement drew the ire of the party’s deputy president Azmin Ali who rebuked the PPBM chairman and reminded him that Anwar is de facto leader of both PH and PKR and had “the right to give views and suggestions”.
Last year, the DAP and PKR clashed over seat allocations during the Sarawak election which led to multi-cornered fights in the six seats.